Align Technology Patent Grants

Methods for parametric attachments

Granted: January 7, 2025
Patent Number: 12186152
Orthodontic systems and related methods are disclosed for designing and providing improved or more effective tooth moving systems for eliciting a desired tooth movement and/or repositioning teeth into a desired arrangement. Methods and orthodontic systems of the invention include tooth attachments having improved or optimized parameters selected or modified for more optimal and/or effective application of forces for a desired/selected orthodontic movement. Attachments of the present…

Methods for verifying manufacturing data

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12182886
Methods for verifying manufacturing data are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes retrieving a fabrication data package including manufacturing data for one or more dental appliances, where the manufacturing data includes one or more treatment stages for repositioning a patient's teeth using the one or more dental appliances. The method can include determining whether there is an error in the manufacturing data of the fabrication data package. In response to a determination…

Systems and methods for tracking teeth movement during orthodontic treatment

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12181857
Methods, systems, and apparatus's for improving orthodontic treatments. In an embodiment, an orthodontic tracking template is provided for assisting in determining whether a patient's teeth are in an appropriate tooth arrangement for transitioning between a wire and bracket orthodontic treatment to a patient-removable orthodontic appliance treatment. The tracking template may include a shell portion defining a plurality of tooth-receiving cavities arranged to fit over at least a portion…

Dental scanning system with structured light projection

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12178685
A dental scanning system comprises an intraoral scanner and one or more processors. The intraoral scanner comprises one or more light projectors configured to project a pattern (comprising a plurality of pattern features) on a dental object, and two or more cameras configured to acquire sets of images, each comprising at least one image from each camera. The processor(s) are configured to determine a correspondence between pattern features in the pattern of light and image features in…

Image registration of intraoral images using ink markings

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12178683
Embodiments include receiving intraoral scan data comprising a plurality of intraoral images of a dental site generated during scanning of the dental site by an intraoral scanner, a plurality of ink markings each comprising a pattern of ink having been temporarily stamped or tattooed onto a gingival surface at the dental site prior to the scanning of the dental site, wherein at least two intraoral images of the plurality of intraoral images comprise representations of one or more ink…

Method and a system usable in creating a subsequent dental appliance

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12178678
A current digital dental model is received that includes a representation of the set of physical teeth for the patient with the current dental appliance attached to the physical teeth or oral cavity. The current digital dental model is a direct digital scan of the set of physical teeth and the current dental appliance. The physical teeth are at a position in treatment when all or a part of the current dental appliance is desired to be removed from one or more of the set of physical teeth…

Dental articulator with quality control features

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12171627
A dental articulator includes a first arm hingedly joined to a second arm about a pivot axis, where each one of the first arm and the second arm are configured to mount a dental model comprising at least one measurement element, and an inspection tool capable of checking the at least one measurable element against allowable tolerances. Each arm includes a mounting bracket having a distal portion adapted to mount the respective dental model and having a proximal portion. Each arm further…

Device pairing for distributed intraoral scanning system

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12171640
A first computing device receives a command to associate the first computing device with an intraoral scanner, the command comprising an identifier. The first computing device wirelessly connects with a second computing device, and sends the identifier to the second computing device. The second computing device wirelessly connects to the intraoral scanner and associates the first computing device with the intraoral scanner. Subsequently, intraoral scan data generated by the first…

Methods of planning teeth movement and media

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12171634
Methods for and media with instruction to cause acquiring known dimensions of a tooth, applying a multivariant regression model using the known dimensions to calculate projected dimensions of the unerupted or erupting tooth, customizing a standard virtual geometry and/or a predefined virtual geometry using the projected dimensions of the unerupted or erupting tooth, and inserting the customized virtual geometry into a virtual model of the patient's jaw, and planning the movement of the…

Sensors for monitoring oral appliances

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12171633
Systems and methods for monitoring the status of oral appliances using sensors. One or more oral appliances may include one or more sensor receiver and emitter pairs configured to collect sensor data. Each sensor receiver and emitter pair may include a sensor receiver on or in a first portion of the oral appliance(s) and a sensor emitter on a second portion of the oral appliance(s), where each sensor receiver is configured to receive a signal emitted by a corresponding sensor emitter. At…

Intraoral systems and methods for sampling soft-tissue

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12171575
Intraoral systems and methods including aligners having soft tissue sensors. The soft tissue sensors may detect protein biomarkers to determine effectiveness of the aligners for causing tooth movement according to a treatment plan. One or more microneedles may be configured to pass the protein biomarker to the soft tissue sensor. A processor may be configured to compare a detected level of the protein biomarker to an expected lever of the protein biomarker, and determine whether an…

Method and apparatuses for interactive ordering of dental appliances

Granted: December 17, 2024
Patent Number: 12169832
Methods and apparatuses for interactive ordering of dental appliances. These methods generally include coordination of a dental appliance laboratory coordinating in the pre-approval process for financing the dental appliances, a financing server, and a dental practitioner (e.g., dentist, orthodontist, etc.).

Compact intraoral 3D scanner

Granted: December 3, 2024
Patent Number: 12156785
An apparatus for determining surface topography of a patient's teeth comprises a probe sized to be at least partially inserted into an intraoral cavity of the patient, a light source to output light; and a light focusing assembly. The light focusing assembly comprises a first lens, a second lens and a focus changing assembly comprising one or more additional lenses that shares an optical axis with the first lens and the second lens and being configured to focus the light to a plurality…

Methods and systems for imaging removable dental appliances

Granted: December 3, 2024
Patent Number: 12156714
Methods and systems for imaging removable dental appliances. Image data taken while a removable dental appliance was worn on a patient's teeth may be used to identify one or more locations of undesirable contact between the removable dental appliance and the patient's teeth and/or one or more attachments on the patient's teeth. The one or more locations of undesirable contact can correlate with undesirable tooth movement compared to expected tooth movement according to a treatment plan.…

Polymerizable monomers and method of polymerizing the same

Granted: November 26, 2024
Patent Number: 12152092
Provided herein are photopolymerizable monomers, optionally for use as reactive diluents in a high temperature lithography-based photopolymerization process, a method of producing polymers using said photopolymerizable monomers, the polymers thus produced, and orthodontic appliances comprising the polymers.

Systems and methods for orthodontic treatment progress tracking

Granted: November 26, 2024
Patent Number: 12150830
Systems and methods for orthodontic treatment progress tracking. Information based on an orthodontic treatment plan prescribed for a patient undergoing orthodontic treatment may be received. The orthodontic treatment plan specifies planned tooth movements according to a series of treatment stages. An orthodontic progress tracking schedule for the patient based on one or more particular tooth movements of the planned tooth movements may be generated. The orthodontic progress tracking…

Gesture control using an intraoral scanner

Granted: November 19, 2024
Patent Number: 12144661
Apparatuses (e.g., systems, devices, etc.) and method for scanning both a subject's intraoral cavity as well as detecting, using the same scanner, e.g., wand, finger gestures and executing command controls based on these detected finger gestures.

Systems and methods for induction of biological response in support structures of the teeth and repositioning thereof

Granted: November 19, 2024
Patent Number: 12144705
A set of primer appliances and a set of treatment appliances to be worn by a subject are provided. The primer appliances are first worn to prepare the local environment of the teeth for further repositioning of the teeth by the treatment appliances. The primer appliances may apply compression or force to one or more support structures of the teeth, in a direction favorable for inducing a biological response of the one or more support structures that prepares the teeth for repositioning,…

Energy-delivering orthodontic aligner systems

Granted: November 19, 2024
Patent Number: 12144704
Aligner systems and methods including a sequence of aligners having energy-delivering elements. For example, first and second aligners of the sequence of aligners may include first and second polymer shells that have shapes for applying respective first and second local forces to first and second regions of a dental arch to move one or more first teeth and one or more second teeth, respectively. The first and second aligners may also include corresponding first and second heating…

Tooth segmentation based on anatomical edge information

Granted: November 19, 2024
Patent Number: 12144701
Provided herein are orthodontic systems and methods for automatically segmenting a person's teeth. Systems, methods and processes are provided to properly segment the teeth of a person's teeth from an image of the person's face showing at least some of the person's teeth (e.g., dental arch). Methods and systems are provided to automatically detect dental edges after a dental scan. Also described herein are methods and systems for generating a simulated image of the person's face from the…